54mm Charge of the Scots Greys

[JR]

Outstanding work Neil.:thumb2::thumb2::thumb2::thumb2::thumb2:

[papa 695]

Fantastic work Neil

[Neil Merryweather]

Scottie , Steve B , Jim, Steve J, John and Ian,
thank you very much chaps!
I was hoping to show some progress after this weekend but all I managed was a coat of primer on the cheval ( see what I did there........?:nerd: ).
I was pleasantly surprised that there are no touch-up issues with the surface finish so I can proceed with finishing the tack , and then get some proper paint on him.
NO idea when that will be as it's a busy social whirl for me this week - I might get to the bench Thursday evening.
I'm clearly not going to finish this in December as per the GB timeframe, but I live my working life by deadlines so I'm b*gg*red if I'm going to worry about one in my hobby- no offence, Jim & Samson:blow-kiss:
cheers chaps
Neil

[Neil Merryweather]

Sorry for the long hiatus, chaps, but I do have progress to report.

Hope everyone had a good Christmas with lots of mogelling pressies from Santa?

After the primer I added the various straps and buckles to the French horse.

I forgot to mention earlier that I added a tongue to his mouth. Interestingly, in my research online about how the bit was arranged I never found any pics of a horse with its mouth open, so Airfix’s sculptor used a bit of license there. But this poor horse IS in an extreme situation and probably would be bellowing in pain or at least gasping for breath.

I added Historex buckles to the valise.

Then I started work on the bit and reigns. I’m using a Historex one which comes with buckles and a couple of other things I can’t identify.
Does anybody know where these should go?? this isn't the one I used, as you'll see below, but the mystery parts seem to be the same on all Historex bits.

I drilled the backs of the bit and inserted a wire-

maybe that’s what the twisty thing is, but I couldn’t see how it fitted together, and why isn’t it symmetrical?

I attached the reigns from toothpaste tube foil with their buckles but I decided to leave them off for painting, as they need to be lying around as if loosely dropped


And that, my friends, apart from a few straps and belts on the Cuirassier himself, is that!










Bring on the wet stuff!
cheers and thanks for looking
Neil

[Guest]

Hi Neil. The piece with two rings is a strap that runs between the nose band and cheek band under the head. The twisted piece is for the end of the strap that attached to it and was tied to the saddle - it was a long halter, so twisted to shorten it when not in use.

[ATTACH alt="fc37a7ff4462ac8e79f2645dd3d2e2c6.jpg"]368157[/ATTACH][ATTACH alt="1160_a1.jpg"]368158[/ATTACH][ATTACH alt="005.jpg"]368159[/ATTACH]

The conversion is fantastic - beautifully done.

[Neil Merryweather]

Thanks Peter, that makes sense now, after years of bafflement :thumb2:
And thanks for your kind comment

[Steve Brodie]

Just keeps getting more impressive with every update

[Jim R]

Hi Neil
Absolutely outstanding. As Steve says 'Just keeps getting more impressive'
Jim

[Neil Merryweather]

Well, thank you Steve and Jim.
It certainly has been fun so far. I'll post some pictures of paint soon, but not being a Peter Day or Steve Brodie I'm not bothering with WIP shots- there's nothing to learn from my painting ability other than what NOT to do :tears-of-joy:!

[Neil Merryweather]

Sorry chaps it's been almost a month since my last installment, but we do now have PAINT!

I had a few mojo dips along the way ,and quite a few distractions, but I finally got there.
And no matt lacquer c*ck ups this time, thanks goodness. Although looking at this pic I see his arms are still quite shiny, grrr!
Painting is still very much a hit-and-miss dark art for me, so I'm quite happy with this.
I will weather them when the whole lot are finished, for consistency.
Here's another view

I haven't even looked at the other guys in all this time , so it will probably be a while before we see any more progress.
Thanks for looking
Neil

[Guest]

Great work Neil, looking very nice indeed. I can never get a completely matt finish on blue.

[papa 695]

Fantastic work Neil

[scottie3158]

Neil,
That is looking very nice.

[Peter Gillson]

Very nice

peter

[yak face]

top work neil , amazing sculpting and alteration , cheers tony